Top 22 PowerShell Interview Questions and Answers for 2024

Are you preparing for a PowerShell interview? If so, you’ve come to the right place. PowerShell is a powerful scripting language and command-line tool that has become increasingly popular in the IT industry. In this article, we’ll cover some of the most commonly asked PowerShell interview questions and provide you with the answers you need to ace your next interview.

1. What is PowerShell?

PowerShell is an extensible command-line shell and scripting language developed by Microsoft. It is designed to automate administrative tasks and manage configurations on Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. PowerShell uses a .NET framework and provides a consistent interface for managing different types of systems.

2. What are the key characteristics of PowerShell?

The key characteristics of PowerShell are:

• Object-based: PowerShell is object-based, meaning it deals with objects rather than text-based output.
• Customizable commands: PowerShell commands, known as cmdlets, can be customized to suit specific tasks.
• Command-line interpreter and scripting environment: PowerShell combines the features of a command-line interface and a scripting environment.

3. What does variables hold in PowerShell?

In PowerShell, variables can hold strings, integers, and objects. Unlike some other scripting languages, PowerShell does not have special variables predefined; they must be defined and assigned values explicitly.

4. What is the significance of brackets in PowerShell?

In PowerShell, different types of brackets have specific meanings:

• Parentheses (): Used for compulsory arguments.
• Curly braces {}: Employed in blocked statements.
• Square brackets []: Define optional items, but they are not frequently used.

5. What are cmdlets?

Cmdlets (pronounced “command-lets”) are simple, built-in commands written in a .NET language like C# or VB, introduced by Windows PowerShell. They are designed to work with objects and can be easily combined in pipelines.

6. What is a PowerShell loop?

A PowerShell loop is used to automate repetitive tasks. PowerShell supports different types of loops, including:

• foreach loop
• while loop
• do-while loop

7. How can you create PowerShell scripts for deploying components in SharePoint?

If you have created a web part using Visual Studio 2010, you can deploy it using the Ctrl+F5 shortcut. To activate the web part feature, you can write a PowerShell script (.ps1) and execute it after deployment.

8. What are PowerShell’s comparison operators?

PowerShell’s comparison operators are used to compare values. The four types of comparison operators are:

• Equality: -eq (equal to), -ne (not equal to)
• Match: -like (matches a pattern), -notlike (does not match a pattern)
• Containment: -contains, -notcontains
• Replacement: -replace

9. What is the PowerShell pipeline used for?

The PowerShell pipeline is used to join two statements, where the output of one statement becomes the input of the second statement. This allows for chaining commands together and creating complex operations.

10. What is the Get-Command cmdlet used for in PowerShell?

The Get-Command cmdlet is used to retrieve other cmdlets. For example, if you’re looking for cmdlets whose names fall between the letters “L” and “R”, you can use the following command:

Get-Command [L-R]*

11. How do you map a network drive in PowerShell?

To map a network drive in PowerShell, you can use the following command:

$Net = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network$Net.MapNetworkDrive("S:", "\expertguru99")

In this example, the drive letter is “S:”, and the network share is called “guru99” on a computer named “expert”.

12. What are the three ways PowerShell uses to ‘Select’?

The three ways PowerShell uses to ‘Select’ are:

1. WMI Query Language (WQL) statements: Get-WmiObject uses the -Query parameter to introduce a classic ‘Select * from’ phrase.
2. Select-String: This cmdlet checks for a word, phrase, or any pattern match.
3. Select-Object: Used to select properties from an object.

13. What is the function of Get-Service in PowerShell?

The Get-Service cmdlet in PowerShell allows you to filter and list the running Windows services. By scripting with Get-Service, you can determine which services are running and which are stopped.

14. What is PowerShell scripting?

PowerShell scripting involves creating a text file (with a .ps1 extension) that contains a series of PowerShell commands, each on a separate line. To run a PowerShell script, you need to:

1. Type the commands in a text editor.
2. Save the file with a .ps1 extension.
3. Execute the file in PowerShell.

15. What is the use of a hash table in PowerShell?

A hash table in PowerShell, also referred to as a dictionary, is an array that allows you to store data in a key-value pair association. The key and value can be of any data type and length. To declare a hash table, you use the @ symbol followed by curly braces.

16. What is the use of an array in PowerShell?

Arrays in PowerShell are used to run a script against remote computers. To create an array, you need to define a variable and assign the array to it. Arrays are represented by the @ symbol and are similar to hash tables but are not followed by curly braces.

Example:

$arrmachine = @("machine1", "machine2", "machine3")

17. What command can be used to get all child folders in a specific folder?

To get all child folders in a specific folder, you need to use the -Recurse parameter with the Get-ChildItem cmdlet:

Get-ChildItem C:Scripts -Recurse

18. How do you convert an object to HTML?

To convert an object to HTML, you can use the ConvertTo-Html cmdlet:

Get-Process | Sort-Object -Property CPU -Descending | ConvertTo-Html | Out-File "process.html"

This command retrieves the running processes, sorts them by CPU usage in descending order, converts the output to HTML, and saves it to the process.html file.

19. How do you rename a variable in PowerShell?

To rename a variable in PowerShell, you can use the Rename-Item cmdlet:

Rename-Item -Path Env:MyVariable -NewName MyRenamedVar

20. What is the function of the $input variable in PowerShell?

The $input variable in PowerShell allows a function to access data coming from the pipeline.

21. What is the code to find the name of installed applications on the current computer?

To find the name of installed applications on the current computer, you can use the following command:

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -ComputerName . | Format-Wide -Column 1

22. How can you find all SQL services running on a server using PowerShell?

There are two ways to find all SQL services running on a server using PowerShell:

1. Using Get-WmiObject:

Get-WmiObject Win32_Service | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*sql*"}

1. Using Get-Service:

Get-Service sql*

Both commands will list all services whose names contain the string “sql”.

These interview questions should help you prepare for your upcoming PowerShell interview. Remember to practice and familiarize yourself with PowerShell concepts and commands to increase your chances of success.